[REPORT] Using Buddhism in HIV/AIDS Education and Care

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With some translation assistance from Asia Catalyst, Mr. Ai Khamngen from Yunnan’s Sangha Metta Project (佛光之家 foguangzhijia）won a full scholarship from the International AIDS Society to attend the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Sangha Metta, located in Yunnan’s Sipsongpanna Tai Autonomous Prefecture, brings together Tai minority Buddhist monks, people living with HIV/AIDS, and community leaders to do AIDS prevention, sex education, and community support work. Theirs is one of the few ethnic-minority-led AIDS programs in China, and is modeled on similar projects in Thailand. Here is his slide presentation.

Please follow this link for his presentation: HIVAIDS care with Buddhism.

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[REPORT] The Limits of Legal Rights in Nepal

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by Hayley Curry

The rule of law can be a powerful and effective tool
for building a society that is free of injustice and filled with opportunities
for all, but the operational environment that accompanies human rights advocacy can limit its effectiveness. This summer, while working as a legal intern at an NGO in Kathmandu,
Nepal, I experienced these challenges firsthand.

 

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[REPORT] Structural Violence in a Refugee Community

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By Celina Su

In 2000, I began to work with a small, community-based project called the Burmese
Refugee Project (BRP) in northwest Thailand. Using a participatory
model of community development, the BRP helps over 100 Burmese Shan refugees in
northwest Thailand access education, health, and legal services. Through this
work, I learned that refugees are the victims of what public health researchers
call structural violence–physical and mental harm that results from unjust social, economic, and political
structures. Many of the prescriptions that would treat these ailments–such as a shared wheelbarrow so
that the refugees do not have to carry 50-kilo bags of rice on their shoulders,
and for the man above, sunglasses to treat pterygium (a scar on the eyes caused
by sun damage)–fall outside typical medical practice.

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[REPORT] Difficulties Drug Users Face when Building an Organization

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This post is based on the presentation that Asia Catalyst scholarship recipient Zhao Gang from Kang Xin
Home, a drug user NGO based in Yunnan, China, gave at the International AIDS
Conference in Vienna this July. Kang Xin Home (pronounced Kang
Shin) aims to bring together Chinese people living with HIV (PLHIV), injecting
drug users (IDU), and methadone treatment personnel in order to promote
HIV/AIDS prevention, self-help and mutual support. Kang Xin aims to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS
on their community, improve the quality of life
for drug users and PLHIV, and promote social equality.

The Situation of drug users

There are several main problems that drug users face in their daily life
which impact their ability to build an organization. Long-term drug abuse leads
to low self esteem. Drug users in our area lack stable employment and therefore
a secure livelihood. They are marginalized and lack support and trust from the
community they live in. The resulting instability makes it difficult for them
to integrate into society. Grassroots nongovernmental organizations (NGO) can
benefit drug users and give them hope through both the services they provide
and the opportunity to get active. However, organizing drug users faces some
distinct challenges that I would like to discuss here. This discussion is part
of a process to actively find solutions and to build sustainable organizations
by and for drug users in China.

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[COMMENTARY] Sex Workers Breaking New Ground in China and Myanmar

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Ye Haiyan self-portrait with poster, which reads “Legalize sex work and decriminalize prostitution! Sex work is work!”
 

By Meg Davis

The crisis of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is creating incentive and space for mobilization of marginalized communities, and
otherwise restrictive states such as China and Myanmar (Burma) are largely allowing it. In recent months, both Chinese and Burmese sex worker-led organizations have moved into the public eye.

 

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